By
Tanobe Michihiro (TANZAN). Translation: The blade is suriage but
preserves its seven character signature and its date of Eiroku nine (1566)
and bears in addition the gold inlayed result of a cutting test by Yamano
Ka'emon Nagahisa cutting in Shoho four (1647) through two bodies. The bade
is long, has a powerful shape, and shows a Seki-typical undulating hamon
that is mixed with the peculiar hamon of that smith, which is a Kenbo-midare.
The hardening is rich in variety and the deki is excellent.

Blade length ~ 75.7 cm
Written by Tanzan Hendo (Tanobe Michihiro) in March of the year of the horse
of this era (2014) + kao

A very fine Koto period 76 cm (cutting edge) with rare 2 body
gold inlay (kinzogan)
cutting test. It is rare to have a cutting test blade where the smith inscribed
the date of which the sword was made. Furthermore, we generally do not see
cutting test on Koto blades.
With NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon
papers. It is also very interesting to note that the omote tang side at one
point in time had additional kinzogan (gold inlay) that was partially removed
and or covered with lacquer, now covered with aged patina (see images). There
are specs of kinzogan that are now showing through, this area has a step in the
tang where the area was filed down. The sayagaki is by Tanobe Michihiro (TANZAN). Kanefusa made the sword in
August of 1566, the cutting test was done in 1647. Kanefusa has one known katana
of his which bears cutting the Nagahisa's earliest known testing was in 1639 so
this is an relatively early example. In an initiation script by Nagehisa it is
read that he "performed
tameshigiri virtually every day, and that he used
up to five or seven, sometimes even 27 bodies, a day. He also states that he
was sixteen years old at his first tameshigiri on a human being and
that between the age of twenty and fifty alone he tested swords on over 6,000
bodies."

This is the most common region cut for multiple body cutting tests.

This shows example how two bodies were stacked before the cutting test - a third
body would be added in the same manner.

And the above image depicts the result.

Quoted
text & image below regarding Nagahisa
are from the book "Tameshigiri - The History and
Development of Japanese Sword Testing" By Markus Sesko pages
50, 51 & 191. Available for purchase -
click here.

"The earliest extant tameshi-mei of Nagahisa is from the 13th day of the eighth month of Kan'ei 15 (1639), found on a blade
by the Seki smith Kanefusa (兼房),
and the last is from Kanbun seven (1667), the year he died. So we can
calculate an active period of around 40 years. In his initiation script we
read that he performed
tameshigiri virtually every day, and that he used
up to five or seven, sometimes even 27 bodies, a day. He also states that he
was sixteen years old at his first tameshigiri on a human being and that between the age of twenty and fifty
alone he tested swords on over 6,000 bodies. But he still lived for twenty
more years and so the figure must be revised upwards to probably around
10,000! This figure also speaks for the large number of death sentences
given during the early Edo period. We learned that officially only two death
sentences, shizai
and
gokumon, provided the sword testers with mediums.
And the figure of around 10,000 is for Nagahisa alone.

Nagahisa further writes in his initiation script that due to his extensive
experience he is able to judge the cutting ability, smith, and age of the smith
simply from looking at a blade when preparing it for the cut, and just by
listening to the sound of a blade when another person performs a cutting test.
We also learn from his hiden-sho,
handed down to certain of his students in Shōhō two (1645), that he considered
his techniques at the rather early age of 47 as being perfect enough to pass
on."

It's important to note: "The highest number of cut-through bodies is seven,
nanatsu-dō (七ッ胴).
Suishinshi Masahide writes in his
Tōken-bengi that he heard of the existence of a blade by Bizen
Motomitsu (基光)
cutting through seven bodies, but the only one extant today is probably the
famous katana of Kanefusa
(兼房) shown below. The
kinzōgan-tameshi-mei reads: "Nanatsu-dōotoshi" (七ッ胴落)
and "Enpōkyūnn nigatsu nijūhachinichi - kirite Nakanishi Jurōbei Yukimitsu +
kaō" (延宝九年二月廿八日・切手中西十郎兵衛
如光, "tested by Nakanishi Jurōbei Yukimitsu on the 28th
day of the second month of Enpōnine [1681] by cutting through seven
bodies")."

UJIFUSA - KANEFUSA(5) EI-ROKU 1558: KYOSABURO. 3rd from ZENSEI KANEFUSA. Had to straighten affairs and bring IWAMI-no-KAMI KANEFUSA back from OWARI (KO-JI NINEN, 1556). The SORYO SHIKI sword production house was thereby unbroken. KANEFUSA(5) received WAKASA-no-KAMI title in EI-ROKU JUSAN 1570 and changed his name to UJIFUSA. In TENMON SANNEN 1534, he had moved from GIFU to SEKI. EIROKU JUNEN, he moves back to take control of sword-making at GIFU Castle. In EIROKU JUSAN 1570, he becomes SHOI second in responsibilities for sword-making and family affairs. The same year he received his title. TENSHO GONEN 1577, his arrives at AZUCHI. Following the death of ODA NOBUNAGA, UJIFUSA moves to KIYOSU, OWARI. UJIFUSA dies in TENSHO JUHACHI 1590, 57 years of age. He makes KANEFUSA JIDAI tight NIOI-GUCHI GUNOME-MIDARE BA with TOBI-YAKI of the late style. UJIFUSA converts to a SHINTO-like style with his second son, whose new world MOMOYAMA order was in ascendency. -Wide MIHABA with O-KISSAKI of particular grandeur. ITAME HADA with thin JI-NIE. Extravagant GUNOME O-MIDARE CHOJI-MIDARE with TOBI-YAKI. O-NOTARE of GUNOME-MIDARE with TOBI-YAKI and SUNGASHI. See SHINTO OWARI His earlier WAKASA-NO-KAMI MEI will be smaller, where his UJIFUSA are large.